Vision to empower parties

 By SHIRLYN BELDEN 

THE Registry of Political Parties has released an election observation report that strives to better relationships and influence of political parties on voters. 

The report is a first election survey carried out by members of the registry during the 2012 general election in seven open electorates in the country. 

The survey was led by Registrar and political scientist Dr Alphonse Gelu and aimed at recouping leads and establishing ways to improve status and purposes of political parties in the country. 

Gelu said the purpose of the observation was relevancy; “how relevant political parties are to the public and how effective they are in their roles”. 

The survey was used to update the database at the registry. 

Gelu said political parties must be seen as being responsible for changing the course of development in the country too. 

He said doing that would lead to parties implementing their policies rather than just creating ideas that would not fully benefit the country in the long run. 

The report points out characteristics common to political parties that the registry is addressing through its development programmes and reforms. 

These common characteristics are: Ideologically weak parties, organisationally weak parties, same party policies that are not known to the people, parties are personalised by an individual and parties are financially poor.